The future! Hopefully we got some big things coming for this guy.

After last night’s game two Celtics win over the magic KP had a fantastic game! Even without Jayson Tatum, the Celtics managed to find a way to win with a balance attack. Porziņģis got nailed with an elbow to the face and was bleeding all over the court, yet returned to make his free throws before going back to the locker room and get five stitches and then return to action. What a warrior! If this team can stay healthy, not much will stop them from going back to back.

Often the best cards of the biggest names are far too expensive for me to buy into. So I look for players that I love that are more affordable to collect. Enter Victor Oladipo. I’ve followed him since his college days and through his NBA career in Orlando, OKC, Indiana and Miami. I wished he would have stayed in Indiana where the hometown crowd loved him. This is one of his best rookie cards, a true vertical National Treasures RPA graded a gem mint BGS 9.5. Hope he’s able to make a comeback next year!

Marcus Smart distilled down to one word: grit. He represented the hustle of the Celtics and was glue for that team for nearly a decade. Yet, trading him and signing KP and getting Jrue was was propelled the current roster to get banner #18. My point being, from a card standpoint, you have to sometimes make tough decisions and give up some good pieces to make your collection grow. It reminds me of trading a Shaq immaculate gold #/10 three color patch auto. I loved that card. But I traded it to get my one Paul Pierce mini game used logoman NT cards. Oh well, you gotta give up good to get good. Worked out for the Celtics.

I long ago made peace that I would likely never own a Giannis true logoman. This player worn hat card from the rookie photo shoot still ticks a lot of boxes for me. Well, it’s not game used. The items from the rookie photo shoot that player worn still have a significance in the hobby. For his rookie year, this contains the NBA logo, and the team logo, and the brand logo on one card. Still one of my favorite Giannis cards in my collection. I still think he’s a top 20 player all time. And the card is super thick. Like Megan Thee Stallion thicc.